Honor Magic 3 series finally arrives with Snapdragon 888+ and incredible cameras

• Andrew
• 3 years ago

For the past two days, we’ve seen some pretty major devices hit the market, and today you can add another one to the list. Honor’s ‘Beyond Magic’ event took place this morning, where the company took the wraps off of the Honor Magic 3 series. The company has been teasing these devices for a few weeks now, including the Magic 3 being semi-shown off (it was in a pre-production case) at an event by CEO George Zhao. 

The Honor Magic 3 is a pretty big deal as it’s the company’s first foray into the flagship Android space since it broke out from under Huawei’s wings. The series is comprised of three devices in the Magic 3, Magic 3 Pro, and Magic 3 Pro+, all of which offer something a little bit different.

Honor Magic 3 and Magic 3 Pro

With the Honor Magic 3 and Magic 3 Pro, we have the same 6.76-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 2772 x 1344 resolution. But these displays also offer a 89-degree curvature paired with ultra-thin bezels to provide as immersive of an experience as you can get, short of getting rid of the selfie camera. Honor also claims the display panel used on its latest devices are 10-bit, capable of showing off 1.07 billion colors while including HDR10+ support for greatly-improved color representation and overall visuals.

Under the hood, the Magic 3 sports the Snapdragon 888, while the Magic 3 Pro gets the new-and-improved Snapdragon 888+. Along with the Magic 3 Pro+, these are amongst the first devices to be released with Qualcomm’s latest flagship processor, coming just two days after Xiaomi hit the market first with its Mi Mix 4. Paired with these chipsets, the Magic 3 offers 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of onboard storage. With the Magic 3 Pro we have the option for 12GB of RAM, along with bumping the storage up to either 256GB or 512GB.

Now for the cameras. Honor is calling these unique camera systems ‘The Eye of Muse’, to symbolize the “perfect blend of art and technology and featuring a concave surface”. With its concave design, you’ll be able to capture more light than ever before, not only providing the perfect day-time shot, but also helping out immensely with low-light photography.

The Magic 3 includes a triple rear-camera array, headlined by a 50MP wide-angle lens with a 1/1.28 color sensor, along with Full Pixel Phase Detection AutoFocus (Full Pixel PDAF). And rounding out the pack, there’s a 64MP monochrome camera with an f/1.8 aperture along with a 13MP ultra wide lens with a 120-degree Field of View (FoV).

Moving to the Magic 3 Pro, the phone retains the three primary sensors from the non-pro model, but it also adds a 64MP telephoto camera. This periscope camera offers an f/3.5 aperture along with providing 3.5x optical zoom and includes Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). But just like we’ve seen from other periscope cameras in devices this year, the Magic 3 Pro’s 64MP sensor is capable of providing up to 100x digital zoom, but you’ll still be able to get crystal-clear images thanks to the built-in OIS.

Finally, at least in terms of the camera, all three of these models are the first ever ‘IMAX ENHANCED’ smartphones. This means that the Magic 3 is equipped with AI effects to help enable “professional movie-grade color solutions”. The phone offers Magic-Log and Level 3D LUT, which are commonly found in professional movies, and Honor has partnered with Bryan Mamahan to create “eight exclusive LUTs inspired by classic movies”.

While the 4,600mAh battery should get you through the day with ease, Honor has thrown some extra goodies in there. All three of the devices in Honor’s new lineup include the company’s 66W Wired SuperCharge technology. But the Magic 3 Pro adds 50W Wireless SuperCharge, along with reverse wireless charging.

Pricing for the Honor Magic 3 starts at €899 (about $1,055), while the Magic 3 Pro begins at €1,099 (about $1,055). 

Honor Magic 3 Pro+

If you take everything offered by the Magic 3 Pro, offer a slightly-different camera design with a hexagonal shape, and use Ceramic for the build, you’ll end up with the Magic 3 Pro+. The biggest difference between the Pro+ and the Pro is the size of the main 50MP lens. With the Pro+, the size is increased to 1/1.28″, up from the 1/1.56″ found on the Magic 3 Pro and Magic 3.

Another difference is in the configuration department as there’s only one option available — 12GB of RAM with 512GB of storage. And as you might expect with this using Ceramic instead of vegan leather, the Magic 3 Pro+ is the companies top-of-the-line flagship. It’s truly a pretty formidable competitor to the OnePlus 9 Pro and Galaxy S21 Ultra, but has enough of extra “oomph” to push it over the edge.

With the Magic 3 Pro and Pro+, Honor also added a secondary Time of Flight (ToF) camera on the front, flanking the selfie camera. This is to provide 3D Face ID unlock in an effort to provide a more secure way to get unlock your phone and keep your information out of the wrong hands.

Pricing for the Honor Magic 3 Pro+ comes in at €1,499 (about $1,760). Honor did not reveal when these devices would hit the market, but confirmed they would first be arriving in China with future global availability to be revealed at a later date.